Hi, what is the most idiomatic way to return a single value from an async function in Clojure?
A: return a channel which conveys the result later; also closes the channel (defn f [x] (let [c (chan)] ; put result onto c and close c later c)) B: take a channel onto which the result is put later; do not close that channel; return nil immediately (defn f [x c] ; put result onto and close c later nil) Variant A has the advantage that it needs one function argument less than variant B. It's also better usable in higher order functions like map. Variant A is also more easy to use if you need to create a channel anyway. Variant A has the disadvantage of creating a new channel each time the async function is called. According my measurements using criterium 0.4.3, clojure 1.6.0 and core.async 0.1.346.0-17112a-alpha, the runtime cost of creating a channel is about 8 times more expensive as creating a single object. Variant B has the advantage to not create a channel on every call. You can supply the same channel many times to the function. On the other hand, the results of multiple calls to f are not likely to arrive on that single channel in call order. If you have such an ordering requirement, you have to create a single channel for each function call anyway. Variant B has the disadvantage that it requires one function argument more than variant A. As a consequence, you can't simply map such a function over a list of inputs. Variant A seems to be the winner. But I ask specially because pipeline-async <https://clojure.github.io/core.async/#clojure.core.async/pipeline-async> uses variant B. What do you think? Alex -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.